I don't know if anybody else feels this way, or maybe from time to time.
I'm having just a crazy morning.
In a very kind of microcosmic way, we were getting ready.
Sam and I were running late this morning trying to get the boys rallied.
Sunday morning breaks their normal routine.
They normally get up and they get to watch a cartoon while they eat their breakfast.
Sunday mornings we throw them in clothes and throw them in the van and they eat on the run.
And Judah really, really wanted, Sam had said he could get two animals,
and he really wanted this one particular tree frog that he had.
And so I was helping him and he really thought it was in his bucket and we couldn't find it.
We had this whole selection process of the replacement tree frog for the one he really wanted.
And just in this little five-minute absolute frustration for me,
I realized that's how my whole morning has been going.
And after that, got a call that the water wasn't functioning too well in the building this morning,
which I'm sure many of you have already experienced.
We're on a well.
The filter was really dirty, so we thought maybe that was it.
Threw a new filter in.
That's not it.
It seems that just generally in the county, the water table is really low.
And so praise God for the potential rain that's coming to bring the water table back up.
The pumps are shut off, so there is no water in the building if you're wondering at this moment what's happening with that.
But the time I would have normally spent just re-going over my notes,
I spent running up and down the stairs and playing with the pump
and trying to figure out what in the world was going on with that.
And I'm in this really bad habit.
I wouldn't suggest any of you who are intending to preach to make notes like I do notes,
because I essentially preach to myself all week.
I'm just constantly looking at the scriptures,
and literally in my head I preach to myself.
I don't picture you guys.
I picture me, and I tell me what I need to hear from this particular text.
And then when I go, oh, that was good, I write it down.
But usually in this very abbreviated form that will just help jog my memory to say it the way I said it in my head.
And so it's really important that I go back and review my notes so I know what in the world I'm talking about.
In fact, I do this to the degree that I've gone back thinking, for example,
college Bible study right now is going through 1 Peter, which a bunch of years ago we preached through 1 Peter.
Oh, like three years ago.
And I got assigned a text that I'd previously done.
I remember doing it.
So I went and found my notes, and they made no sense to me.
There were some references that made sense.
I mean, obviously I had some framework going on there, but why did I write that down?
And what did I intend to say as a result?
So that's kind of where I find myself this morning as I'm coming to my notes.
I looked at them briefly and went, I don't even know what that means.
So let's pray together.
For God's grace, for the preaching of his word this morning.
We always need it.
We need it more.
We feel our need for it more at some time.
So let's pray together.
Father, it is a blessing to get to come to your word.
For us to all hold copies of various sort, translation, some digital, some in paper,
some big and some small in our laps this morning.
And to have a church that celebrates the truth and desires to come around it
and to align our lives with it is a great grace wrought by you.
Father, as we all come from different directions this morning with different levels of craziness in our day,
I would ask that you be very gracious to us.
Still our hearts focus our minds that we might hear what you would say to us by your word this morning.
There is no authority in my speaking except for the authority of your written word.
Help us to cherish it.
Help us to want to hear from you this morning.
To desire to have our little worlds crushed by your astounding love to us.
And Father, help all of this, the great end of it all,
be that we love you more as a result of what we do here together today,
that we will proclaim your excellencies,
that we will leave this place shouting to the mountaintops how great our God is.
We pray all of this in Jesus' precious and holy name.
Amen.
So we are now in Mark chapter 12.
It is Wednesday of what's been called Passion Week.
Jesus will be crucified on Friday.
And we're going to spend a good majority of the rest of our time in Mark in Wednesday.
Quite a bit of the text itself is on Wednesday.
Things are winding down in one sense and certainly winding up in another sense.
He's entered Jerusalem on Monday, which we see at the beginning of chapter 11.
He cleanses the temple on Tuesday.
Begins to make quite a hubbub in town already.
And then Kyle last week preached from the very end of chapter 11.
And we see the confrontation that begins in Jerusalem with the scribes and the Pharisees,
all these religious elite leaders that eventually leads to his crucifixion on Friday.
And so that's where we find ourselves as we come to the beginning of chapter 12.
So follow along as I read to you, starting in verse 1.
And he began to speak to them in parables.
A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower
and leased it to tenants and went into another country.
When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
Again, he sent to them another servant and they struck him on the head and treated him shapefully.
And he sent another and him they killed.
And so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.
He had still one other, a beloved son.
Finally, he sent him to them saying,
They will respect my son.
But those tenants said to one another,
This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours.
And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
What will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this scripture?
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people for they perceived that he had told the parable against them.
So they left him and went away.
This is God's word to us.
It was written for his glory and our good.
We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
Jesus begins, verse 1, we see, to speak to them in parables.
And I think it's important for us to note who it is that he's talking to.
Chapter 11, verse 27.
It's the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
Essentially, all of those at the top.
The upper echelon of apostate Judaism is who he's speaking this parable to.
And Jesus is such a masterful storyteller.
I would encourage you at some point to take a brief break from whatever study you're doing in the scriptures
and spend some time just studying the parables of Jesus.
Brilliant in every regard.
Direct to the point.
Speaks to these people in terms that they understood.
Drew their minds to the exact place that he intended for them to go.
For us, it takes a little more work sometimes.
We have to understand context a bit more.
But boy, were these stories pointed and perfect in every regard.
Now, we've seen parables serve some different purposes.
Back in Mark chapter 4, he's speaking in parables to the crowd at Barad.
And in verse 10, it says that when he was alone,
those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
And he said to them,
to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.
But for those outside, everything is in parables so that they may indeed see,
but not perceive and may indeed hear, but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.
So Jesus has used the parables to veil the truth in a sense,
to speak about the kingdom of God in such a way that only those whose hearts had been enlightened by the spirit
understood what he was saying to them.
It was kind of a shrouding of the truth.
But now, he's using a parable in a much more pointed fashion.
These darkened, hard-hearted religious leaders fully understand that he is speaking about them.
We see this to be the case in verse 12.
For they perceived, brilliant fellas, glad you figured it out,
that he was talking against them.
These religious leaders, these apostates,
these who were leading the people of Israel astray.
And the story starts out with a man.
This man here is God who plants a vineyard,
puts a fence around it, digs a pit for the wine press, builds a tower.
And for us, these might seem like unimportant details,
but all of these things were necessary for the flourishing of a vineyard.
In fact, in this area, the valleys are very, very fertile, soft, good ground.
The mountains are full of stones.
It took a lot of work to prepare the hillsides,
and this is where they grew.
Wheat in the valley, wine, grapes up on the hillside.
They would have put a tower in the middle of it,
so they could have guarded over it,
from animals that would come and eat the grapes,
as well as any marauders that would come and try to take over the vineyards.
They would build a pit and a wine press,
so that they could process the grapes into something that was useful for their consumption.
These things were all necessary,
and so already he's catching them up into this story.
A man who builds a good vineyard.
A right and a proper vineyard.
But what does the vineyard represent in the story?
What or who is the vineyard?
The vineyard is Israel.
He's making here a direct reference to Isaiah 5,
verse 1 and 2.
You're welcome to turn there, or just listen.
Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.
He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it,
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
There are many other Old Testament references as well to this as a symbol,
like Psalm 80, verses 8 and 9.
This is a psalm of Asaph.
You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it.
It took deep root and filled the land.
This symbol is used most often to speak positively about the Lord's planting of His vineyard,
His keeping of it, His tending of it,
the way in which He sustains it.
But it's also used to speak in negative about Israel,
this vineyard that He had planted,
and the way in which it lacked the proper fruit.
We saw that Isaiah 5 at the end of verse 2.
Looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes,
which was not a grape that was good for wine making.
Again, later on in Isaiah 5, verse 7,
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are His pleasant planting.
And He looked for, here's the fruit He's looking for,
the good grapes,
He looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed.
For righteousness,
but behold, an outcry.
Again, Jeremiah 2, verse 21,
Yet I planted you a choice vine,
holy of pure seed.
How then have you turned degenerate
and become a wild vine?
They did not produce the fruit
that was keeping with righteousness.
They didn't produce the fruit that was proper
for the people of God.
Now, much of this was because
the tenants,
those that were put in charge
over this vineyard,
speaking here of those with spiritual leadership,
did not lead well.
Now, Israel is certainly held accountable as a nation.
Individuals will be held accountable
as individuals in our church.
You will be held accountable
for the sins that you commit,
both those of omission and commission,
but I will be held accountable
to a higher degree
for the way in which I teach you
to obey the Word of God.
What a weight that is,
especially on a morning like this.
So here we see in this parable
a particular indictment
against the religious leaders.
Jesus is not dismissing Israel
for their lack of following Him,
but particularly as these men
come to confront Him,
which is not a new thing for Jesus,
He's already experienced this
as He's traveled all over Galilee.
They've been sending men out to Him.
They've already been trying to trap Him.
He's been avoiding them all along.
But here we see in this final week
as things are coming to a head,
the great climax of this redemptive story
is about to happen.
The confrontations also increase.
And so specifically,
He's speaking against these men.
Again, chapter 11, verse 27,
the chief priests, the scribes,
and the elders who came to Him.
Listen to what He says in Matthew 23.
You'd do well to turn here.
Matthew 23.
There's a well-known chapter
where Jesus speaks out
against the Pharisees,
the woes.
He says,
woe to them,
woe to them.
Beginning in verse 1 of Matthew 23,
then Jesus said to the crowds
and to His disciples,
the scribes and the Pharisees
sit on Moses' seat,
meaning they were given authority,
they were religious leaders,
over the people.
So, do and observe
whatever they tell you,
but not the works they do,
for they preach,
but do not practice.
They were great hypocrites.
The great picture of hypocrisy.
And sadly, I think we too often reflect
the way in which they live.
Verse 4,
they tie up heavy burdens,
hard to bear,
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they themselves
are not willing to move them
with a finger.
They do all their deeds
to be seen by others,
for they make their phylacteries broad
and their fringes long,
and they love the place of honor
at feasts,
and the best seats
in the synagogues,
and greetings in the marketplaces,
and being called rabbi
by others.
These men had taken these positions
and used it for their own
self-exaltation.
The phylactery was a small leather box
that carried the law of God
on their foreheads,
and their fringes were on their
prayer shawls,
and them having longer fringes
was supposed to be a greater thing.
They were more serious
about their devotion
to the way in which God
had called them to live.
It seemed that they were
getting into a competition
about who could be better
and greater
and be exalted by people.
Is this not the way
that so many of us live?
Do you identify in any way
with these rulers?
Piling up for yourself
praise and exaltation.
Don't forget where we've been
in Mark.
Put yourself back in Mark 8.
The ways in which
that Jesus has now set Himself aside.
He's teaching the disciples.
He's traveling towards Jerusalem.
He's got this final few months
with them moving along.
And He says some incredible,
shocking things about what it looks like
to follow Him.
The high cost of discipleship.
Chapter 8, verse 34.
If anyone would come after Me,
let him deny himself
and take up his cross
and follow Me.
You must die.
You must lay down who you are
if you want to be found in Christ
and be found to be called His.
Chapter 9, verse 35.
If anyone would be first,
he must be last of all
and servant of all.
Chapter 10, verse 31.
But many who are first
will be last
and the last first.
Chapter 10 again, verse 43.
But whoever will be great among you
must be your servant.
And who will be first among you
must be slave of all.
And He puts the great punctuation mark
on all of this
as Himself as the example.
He has yet to do this,
but we're here coming to it
in this week we're studying.
Verse 45.
For even the Son of Man
came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give His life
as a ransom for many.
This is what it looks like
to follow Jesus.
This is what it looks like
to not be apostate
and to follow God.
This is not at all
what these religious rulers
were doing.
They were the antithesis of this.
The very opposite
of this thing.
And we see that even
they are aware of it.
By the end of His story
in verse 12,
they have perceived
that He's talking about them.
The indictment is on them.
And yet they fail to repent.
They instead seek to kill Him
at the appropriate time
when they feel that
they can get away
with such an act.
And back in our story,
verse 2.
When the season came,
He sent a servant
to the tenants
to get from them
some of the fruit
of the vineyard.
Now this whole practice
of leasing out a property,
even setting it up
and then giving it
to people to work
was very common
in this day.
It's not entirely uncommon
in our day either.
But the way that they
would go about this exchange
is that the owner
of the land
would get some percentage
of the crop
that was yielded.
So that's all He's saying here
is driving this story along.
He's bringing the people
who are listening,
particularly these religious leaders,
along in this story.
So they see
there's a good vineyard built,
there's tenants put over it,
and when the fruit comes,
the proper thing
is to follow.
The man who's gone away
has sent somebody
to collect
what is rightfully his.
What would have been expected.
Verse 3,
And they took him,
and they beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.
So the servant is beaten
and sent back.
Verse 4,
Again he sent to them
another servant,
and they struck him on the head
and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another,
and him they killed,
and so with many others.
Some they beat,
and some they killed.
Now note for a moment
this man with this vineyard
and his great,
great patience
and mercy
towards the tenants.
In fact,
at this point,
the people listening
would have already been
kind of enraged
by the activity
of this man.
Why did he not go
and destroy these tenants
after they beat
and sent away a servant
the first time?
The proper and right thing
for them to have done
on the first sending
of the servant
would have been to
yield the crop,
give to him
what was rightfully his,
and send it back,
and they refused to do it.
This was grounds
for their very dismissal.
In fact,
he would have had
much room to punish,
right?
To destroy them
and to drive them out.
Well, we see this man
standing as a symbol
for our Lord
and the way in which
he dealt with Israel
with great patience,
sending to them
another,
and another,
and another.
Listen to the words
of the Lord.
Return to me.
You are my people.
I will be your God.
These words echo
all throughout
the Old Testament.
The way in which
he beckons his people
to come back to him.
And so,
who are these servants
in our parable?
Who do they represent?
They're the prophets.
And what had the leaders
of Israel done
with the prophets?
All of you are scholars
of your Old Testament.
I know you know it
so well.
From Moses
all the way
to John,
the baptizer,
they largely rejected them.
Largely rejected them.
Some repentance.
Some turning back.
But for the most part,
they rejected them.
Some examples for you.
Tradition holds
that Isaiah was
sawn in half
and Jeremiah
was stoned to death.
Ezekiel hated.
Amos had to flee
for his life.
Zechariah was rejected
and stoned.
Micah was beaten.
And here in our
Mark's Gospel account,
John the baptizer
was beheaded.
They rejected
the messengers of God.
They didn't want to hear
what they had to say.
Jesus sums this up
again back in Matthew 23.
I should have had you
keep your finger there.
Beginning in verse 29.
Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites,
for you build
the tombs of the prophets
and decorate
the monuments
of the righteous,
saying,
if we had lived
in the days of our fathers,
we would not have
taken part with them
in the shedding
and shedding the blood
of the prophets.
They were so self-righteous
they thought themselves
above their forefathers
who had done these things.
Right?
Who had destroyed
these prophets.
So they're building
for them monuments.
They're decorating
these monuments
and they're saying
we would have
nothing to do
with the murder
of the prophets.
Verse 31.
The indictment
Jesus delivers to them.
Thus you witness
against yourselves
that you are sons
of those who
murdered the prophets.
Fill up then
the measure
of your fathers
you serpents
you brood of vipers.
How are you to escape
being sentenced
to hell?
That's our Lord.
Therefore I send you
prophets
and wise men
and scribes
some of whom
you will kill
and crucify
and some you will
flog in your synagogues
and persecute
from town to town
so that on you
may come
all the righteous blood
shed on earth
from the blood
of righteous Abel
to the blood
of Zachariah
the son of Barakai
whom you murdered
between the sanctuary
and the altar.
Truly I say to you
all these things
will come
upon this generation.
So what is he saying
to them?
He's saying
I'm going to prove
that you are as evil
as your forefathers.
You're going to kill me
and then I'm going to send
to you many people
who are going to come
and profess the truth
of God
and you're going to
kill them too.
And we see this
all play out
in this prediction
that happens here.
that's who these men are.
And boy
the scathing way
in which Jesus
speaks to them.
He gives them
no space
to wiggle out
of this whatsoever.
Serpents
brood of vipers
evil men
with evil intentions
proclaiming to be
men of God
and yet
were not
in any way whatsoever.
Now Jesus uses
two titles of himself
in the coming verses
and we really need
to hone in on this
and really pay attention
to this.
So we see the different
slaves are sent.
Kind of this
amassing number of slaves.
It would appear
that this man
runs out of slaves.
He sends so many
different servants
to them
that he's out.
He's tapped out.
No more servants
to send
because verse 6 says
he still had one other.
A beloved son.
Who is this?
It is the Christ.
It is Jesus.
The beloved son.
The man says
they will respect
my son
but the tenants
said to one another
this is the heir.
This is the Christ.
Come let us kill him
and the inheritance
will be ours.
And they took him
and killed him
and threw him
out of the vineyard.
Jesus is coming
and he is disrupting
their little world
of their religious
eliteness.
They are getting
knocked down
off of their thrones
that they have set up.
For the second time now
Jesus has come
and he has taken over
the temple.
It happens previously
at the very beginning
of his ministry.
We see that in John 2.
This is the second time
he's come back now
and he's done it again.
This courtyard
of the Gentiles
was a huge space
and I would just
love, oh would I love
to see it.
I hope that when we
get to heaven
we somehow get
the revelation
of what that looked like
and we watch the DVD
or something
of him driving out
and controlling
this massive,
massive space.
He's totally disrupted
and that's why
they're coming to him
and that's why
as Kyle was talking about
they're saying
by what authority?
You can't just come in
and take over like this?
He's putting them
in their place.
He's disrupting
all of this.
And they don't want that.
They want the temporary good.
They want the temporary glory.
They want him out of the picture
so they can continue
to persist
in leading in the way
that they have.
Amassing for themselves.
Getting all of the praise
in that time.
Jesus is the beloved Son.
Remember back in Mark 1
when Jesus was baptized
by John the baptizer.
We see this beautiful picture
of the Trinity
all in one place.
Jesus being baptized.
The Spirit of God
descending like a dove
and a voice coming from heaven
that says,
You are my beloved Son.
With you,
I am well pleased.
Places this seal
and this mark on him
and his ministry
really kicks off
at this point.
The amazing thing,
beloved,
and the reason I call you that,
is that if you're in Christ,
we are also now
children of God.
Jesus is the Son of God.
This complex,
mind-blowing,
Trinitarian truth
and the ministry apprenticeship
that we have going on here
this afternoon.
We're going to talk about
the Trinity.
It is such a difficult thing.
It's clearly biblically taught.
So hard to understand.
We've got this equal,
coexisting,
three-part God
and yet it exists
in some hierarchy.
The Son yielding to the will
of the Father.
The Father loving the Son.
It's a complex deal.
But this passes to us.
We get to join in.
Not that we're part of God,
but we get to be part of this
wonderful family
and this communion
that exists in that way.
John writes in 1 John,
1-3,
See what kind of love
the Father has given to us
that we should be called
children of God?
And so we are.
The reason why the world
does not know us
is that it did not know Him.
Beloved,
we are God's children now
and what we will be
has not yet appeared,
but we know that
when He appears
we should be like Him
because we shall see Him
as He is.
And everyone who thus hopes
in Him purifies himself
as He is pure.
If you have placed your hope,
if you have placed believing faith
in Jesus Christ,
you are a child of God.
And you see that the
clear expectation
as we've been studying
through Mark
is that we're also
going to experience
the kind of suffering
that Christ experiences.
We've seen this now
a number of times
throughout the text.
Prosperity gospel,
be damned.
It's not the truth.
We will suffer
and we will die
for our faith.
We live in a comfortable place
where this isn't a reality to us.
And the shameful thing
is because most of us
aren't living for Christ.
Most of us have bought into
this cheap grace idea.
Right?
You check a box.
Christian.
You show up for an hour and a half.
Maybe some bonus things.
You plug in somewhere
and do your monthly service.
And you think you're good
and right with God.
Discipleship is costly.
It costs you everything.
But it's worth it.
Trade what you can't keep
to that eternal thing
that you cannot lose.
Right?
This is the high call
of the gospel.
To be children of God.
John very poignantly says
the reason the world
does not know us
is that it did not know
Him.
We will be rejected
by the world
but we will be accepted
by God.
Isn't this a better thing?
Here we see these scribes,
these Pharisees,
these elders,
the religious leaders
who were highly accepted
by the world.
Jesus said in Matthew 23,
how will you escape hell?
How?
This is what you're looking for
in life.
Your end is destruction.
What a tragic thing.
Place your faith in Christ.
Accept what comes with that.
The high cost of discipleship
and be called a child of God.
It says in the text
that they killed Him
and then they threw Him out.
This is likely a reference
to the wide rejection
of Jesus by Israel.
They threw Him
out of the vineyard
altogether.
The vineyard itself
did not contain Him
any longer
but they tossed Him
outside of its walls
and so Jesus
opens the indictment up
a bit more.
And then He asks
the question
in verse 9,
what will the owner
of the vineyard do?
Now in the parallel text
in Matthew 21,
verse 41,
they respond,
they said to Him,
He will put those wretches
to a miserable death
and let out the vineyard
to other tenants
who will give Him
the fruits
in their season.
Now remember
who He's talking to.
He's talking to these
religious scribes.
These people
who should have
had all the answers.
And they did in this case.
In Matthew's account,
they respond
with the right thing.
Jesus has so caught them up
into this story
that they've yet to really realize
that they're now
delivering judgment
on themselves.
What's He going to do
to these men
who have treated Him
so shamefully,
who in every way
have made themselves
His enemy?
They say,
who put Him
to a miserable death?
That's the right
and proper thing to do.
They understood
capital punishment.
Genesis 9, 6.
God speaks to Noah
and says,
whoever sheds
the blood of man,
by man shall his blood
be shed.
For God made man
in His own image.
They would have been
furious
as much as they were
engaging in this story,
this fiction
that's happening
before them,
at the way in which
these tenants
treated the man
who owned
this vineyard.
Put them to death.
Come.
Put them to death.
Drive them out.
Give the vineyard
to other tenants
who give Him
the fruits
in their season.
And then Jesus
brings another title
into our scene
in verse 10.
Jesus is
the cornerstone.
He's the cornerstone.
Have you not read
this Scripture?
Now, when Jesus
uses words like this,
He's really mocking
these men
because they had
read it.
They clearly had read it.
These were the experts
on the law.
I can't hold myself
in comparison
to the way
they understood
the Scriptures.
I'm not like this
in my knowledge.
We know men
who are in our country
we look to,
we use their commentaries
and go and source them
for help in understanding
the Scriptures.
So they knew this.
They had read the Scripture.
The stone
that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing
and it is marvelous
in our eyes.
Now, if you don't know much
about this ancient architecture,
the cornerstone
was incredibly important
for the building
of a building
because it had to be hewn,
right?
They chipped away.
They built these things,
blocks of rock.
They built stones
to be stacked.
Incredible.
I hope someday
to get to travel
and see firsthand
some of this ancient architecture.
That cornerstone
was so important
because it had to be
laid out perfectly square
on all sides
because it built
the walls out
as well as
the way in which
the wall would be built up.
Right?
So if it was crooked
in any way whatsoever,
the wall would lean
or the walls would gap out
or they would narrow in.
The building wouldn't
be put together properly.
The cornerstone
was key
to the function
of the entire building.
Without it,
the building
could not hold together.
It could not be
properly built.
This is further significant
because
he's quoting here
Psalm 118,
22,
and 23.
Now I know all of you
have great memories.
So you're remembering
a number of weeks ago
when Clay
spoke
at the beginning
of chapter 11
about the triumphal
entry.
And they called out
all the people
called out
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes!
in the name of the Lord.
And guess what
they're quoting there?
Psalm 118,
verse 26.
Just a few verses
after this very thing
that Jesus is quoting.
The stone that the builders
project
has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing
and it is marvelous
in our eyes.
So by the profession
of the people
as he came in
on Monday,
he is that cornerstone.
And this may be the point
we don't know exactly,
but this may be the point
at which
in their minds
it turns
and they get,
oh, aha,
he's talking about us.
Oh, he's saying
he's the cornerstone.
And it mentions there
in verse 12
that they feared
the people.
So they left him
and they went away.
Very clever of our Lord
to quote from Psalm 118,
22 and 23
in this case.
Now you remember
verse 9,
pulling us back up,
you remember in verse 9
that the tenants
are going to be destroyed
and the vineyard
is going to be given
to others.
In Matthew's account
it says
that the tenants
will give him
the fruits of their season.
The others will be
new tenants
that will give him
fruits in their season.
So who is Jesus
referring to
when he talks about
the others?
Who is this vineyard
going to be given to?
I think specifically
and firstly
we need to understand
to the apostles.
Already there's been
some authority shift.
Hasn't there?
Jesus has been teaching
them along the way
correcting their thinking.
He's given them
charge to go out
and preach the gospel
of the coming kingdom.
He's given them
the ability to cast out
demons and to heal people.
There's already been
a bit of a power shift
in the structure
already
and it will only
increase
as he sends his spirit
the helper
to come along.
Jesus says
that the apostles
are going to do
greater works
than he does.
They're going to become
the new leaders.
The new tenants
over Israel
being God's people.
Remember that 21
verse 43 of Matthew
Therefore I tell you
the kingdom of God
will be taken away from you
and given to a people
producing
its fruits.
producing good works.
These would be the
new heralds
of the truth.
The guardians
of it.
So specifically
the apostles
and then beyond that
to us.
We're in that lineage now
as those who believe
in the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
That message has passed
across the generations
and we are now
those heralds
of the truth.
If you don't believe me
I think you do.
But just in case you don't
let's turn to 1 Peter
together.
Chapter 2.
The scriptures are such a wonderful
web interweaving
of symbolism
written across
so many years
by so many different writers
but all inspired
by the spirit of God.
1 Peter
chapter 2.
I'll begin reading
in verse 4.
As you come to him
him is Jesus
here
a living stone
rejected by men
but in the sight
of God
chosen
and precious
you yourselves
like living stones
are being built up
as a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood
to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
So as we come to
Jesus Christ
the living stone
this cornerstone
we are also
stones
being built into
a house
to offer what?
Sacrifices
acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ.
Fruit
bearing good fruit
good works
preaching the gospel
loving our neighbors.
Verse 6
For it stands in Scripture
Behold
I am laying in Zion
a stone
a cornerstone
chosen
and precious
and whoever believes
in him
will not be put to shame.
So the honor
is for you
who believe
but for those
who do not believe
the stone
that the builders
rejected
has become
the cornerstone
Does that sound familiar?
Verse 8
And a stone of stumbling
and a rock of fence
they stumble
because they disobey
the word
as they were destined
to do
but you are
a chosen race
a royal priesthood
a holy nation
a people
for his own possession
Why?
That you may proclaim
the excellencies
of him
who called you
out of darkness
into his marvelous light
That's why
we exist
church
Once you were
not a people
but now you are
God's people
Once you had
not received mercy
but now you have
received mercy
verse 10
is borrowing
from Hosea
What a beautiful
beautiful picture
this is
of us being
built into
a holy dwelling
place
for God
Do you see
the great
juxtaposition
here
in the story?
Jesus is using
this story
directly as an
indictment
against these men
that he's talking
to
but it broadens
out
as he talks
about who
he is
and we have
a great
understanding
now on
this side
of all
of the
gospel
realities
who we
are now
in
him
this is
why we're
created
this high
cost
of discipleship
for us to
walk in
all of us
a holy
priesthood
all of us
are meant to be
going and sharing
going and doing
it's not reserved
for my position
in this church
all of you have
been given
this responsibility
my job
primarily
is to help
you
go do
your job
2nd
Corinthians
chapter 5
makes the
point again
and I'm going
to close
with this
2nd
Corinthians
chapter 5
beginning
of verse
17
therefore
if anyone
is in
Christ
he is a
new
creation
the old
is passed
away
behold
the new
has come
all this
is from
God
who through
Christ
reconciled
us to
himself
and gave
us the
ministry
of
reconciliation
understand
that we
are enemies
of God
and the
ministry
of reconciliation
is that we
help people
make peace
with God
verse 19
that is
in Christ
God was
reconciling
the world
to himself
not counting
their trespasses
against them
and entrusting
to us
the message
of reconciliation
therefore
we are
ambassadors
for Christ
God
making his
appeal
through us
we implore
you
on behalf
of Christ
be reconciled
to God
so if you
are in
Christ
you have
the ministry
of reconciliation
to be about
the work
of bringing
people to
peace
with God
and understand
beloved
this is a
big deal
just before
this in
2nd
Corinthians
Paul said
that we
no longer
regard
anyone
according
to the
flesh
and what
he's
meaning
there
is
that
they
see
people
as
eternal
beings
no one's
life gets
snuffed out
and it
ends there
they go
on forever
and where
do they
go on
to
we should
really want
to know
this
we should
be really
concerned
about this
with everyone
we encounter
do you
understand
the weight
of sin
and its
subsequent
consequence
oh if you
do plead
with people
to come
to the
Lord
that they
might have
life now
and for
eternity
this is
the message
of
reconciliation
God has
granted it
to us
he makes
his appeal
through us
and that
appeal is
simply this
if you
do not
know
where you
stand
in this
if you
think
I may
be in
the camp
of these
religious
elite
I go
through the
motions
I do
the things
outside
I'm looking
pretty good
inside
I'm full
of dead
people's
bones
I'm full
of hypocrisy
if you
think you
align with
them in
this way
this is
the appeal
to you
we implore
you
on behalf
of Christ
be reconciled
to God
let's pray
together